Staff Reporter :
RAIPUR, Dec 18
TO PROVIDE better healthcare
facilities to the patients of car
diovascular, cancer, chronic res
piratory diseases, and neuro
logical illnesses, Chhattisgarh
Department of Health and
Family Welfare has started the
function of palliative care (PC)
in entire State, but still it has
failed to provide any relief to the
patients suffering from these dis
eases in entire State so far. Patients of these ailments face difficulties owing to poor
accessibility to these centres. In
fact, in many districts, patients
and their families are still
unaware of this health scheme
of the department. It may be mentioned here that,
Palliative Care (PC) is most commonly needs for patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases,
chronic respiratory diseases,
chronic respiratory diseases, cancer and neurological illnesses. Apart from clinical support,
doctors as well as physiotherapists and nurses of this centre do
home tours of these patients and
help them by providing them
medicines, exercise and treatment procedures.
In terms of last-stage cancer
and paralysis patients, PCs prove
an approach that improves the
quality of life of patients and their
families who are facing problems associated with life-threat
ening illness.
In Chhattisgarh, only 5%
patients of these ailments have
access to PCs in different districts of the State. At present, out
of 7.8 lakh confirmed patients of
above ailments, only 39500
patients have been registered
with PCs to get treatment and
healthcare services of these cen
tres. In fact, some national organisations have criticised the PC
facilities of Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Bihar. It is said that there are various
barriers to the poor delivery of
palliative care in Chhattisgarh,
including an inequitable distri
bution of services and poor geo
graphic access to health centres.
For instance in Chhattisgarh, in
districts of Bastar and Surguja
division, PCs are situated only in
urban parts and therefore
patients of rural and remote areas
are facing lots of hardships due to longest medical travel
time of 2 to 4 hours for reaching
these centres.
Dr Iqbal Siddiqui, PC special
ist in Dhamtari district said that
in many districts of the State,
access to palliative care remains
extremely poor and therefore,
patients and their families avoid
to visit these centres. As per the figures of health
departments, the coverage of PCs was worse in rural areas with only 9 per cent of the population within 30 minutes and
in remaining centres patients
travel 90 to 120 minutes to reach
these centres.
In urban areas too, 50 per cent of the patients
travel 45 minutes to reach cen
tres and the remaining ones travel 60 to 75 minutes for reaching
these centres. Dr Smita Dewangan, Deputy
Director and In-charge of
Palliative Care in Chhattisgarh
stated that from 2022, the
department has started training
programmes to make PCs bet
ter. In last one year, the care has
trained over 100 doctors, physiotherapists and nurses to
treat patients under PCs. In
Kerala and Tamil Nadu, gram
panchayats and NGos also support this scheme.